Souxie Lafayette #5
“OH MY GOD!” Clementine screamed into the mic.
“Princess Ayira just unleashed magic like we’ve never seen before!
True to her native land where they are born of the sun!
Princess Ayira just blew fire out of her mouth!
Her eyes are burning just as bright and her skin!
We have the very first black draconian shift ever caught on camera as one of the oldest mythics in the world! ”
Every screen flipped towards Ayira as her skin began to harden and break up into small scales on her face before a plume of blue flames spilled from her nostrils.
Just as fast as her skin attempted to shift, it fell back into its blemish free complexion while she quickly tucked the nearly burnt and deflated ball in her bra.
“MAGGIE?!” She screamed; her accent thick before dunking back in the water to look around. Bubbles spilled from her nostrils, and ears like she was boiling only to swim deeper beneath the surface. More bubbles formed against her skin before lifting as she attempted to look around.
“Ayira has definitely proven herself to be a worthy opponent–––”
“Princess Ayira,” Clementine corrected. “Let’s not disrespect my fellow Collins sister. She is after all a student and future Beta Nu Soror here at THEEE!?”
The rest of the stadium cheered and chanted in unison.
“DREW! COLLINS! UNIVERSITY!”
All the screens suddenly went back to the water where a student with makeshift gills swam down to the deepest darkest part of the water.
The entire arena went dark with the only light coming from the multiple monitors and projectors.
She had short braids with little beads on the end and wore a maroon one-piece swimsuit with the shorts, and the t-shirt they all started with to represent the school was used as a means to hold her ball at her waist.
“Mykah Lavell of Drew Collins is searching for our fallen student,” Clementine said in a hushed voice. “We trojan warriors never think to leave one another behind.”
“But will she make it in time?” The male counterpart asked. “Who knows what might be swimming…”
They showed something dark crossed the screen as if it swam right over the camera. My heart dropped at the sight of the long-necked creature with webbed skin slithering from side to side with fresh gills breathing the water into its scaly body.
“They’re doing this on purpose,” I said out loud. They didn’t want anyone to go help or save Maggie because whatever mythic was swimming went straight for the girl, diving in the same direction she went. People started screaming out as if she could hear us back here in the arena.
“FORGET MAGGIE! DON’T SAVE HER!”
“SWIM TO THE TOP! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”
“Family, I don’t know about this one y'all,” the male voice said with a dramatic sigh. “Do we help the fallen or every woman for themselves? What do you think?”
Everyone began screaming out to ditch and leave Maggie and sure enough, the girl who was attempting to find her could be seen screaming.
The bubbles spilled out of her mouth as the creature came for her with its mouth wide open.
Above the surface, you could see students battling the storm while screaming out that there was land nearby.
They could see land. Ayira was trying her hardest to swim as far as she could go but every time she would come up for air, you could tell it was taking a toll on her body.
“Maggie, I know you can hear me! You are not dead! They cannot kill you like this! SHOW THEM WHO YOU ARE!” Ayira cried out as her face kept shifting repeatedly.
Her scales would blend into her skin before breaking apart only to fold right back into place.
The water must really be getting to her because she looked drained, almost as if she was overheating. “SHOW THEM MAGGIE GREY!”
Only one screen that wrapped around the arena showed Maggie’s body still floating down to the bottom.
No human could survive this, but she was no ordinary human, and I smiled when I saw her head lift up.
Bubbles escaped her mouth as her eyes opened.
She immediately grabbed her throat and began to flail her other arm and legs trying to swim up.
That’s when I turned away because I…it was all beginning to be too real for me.
They said no students would die if they lost the game but this…
this was too much. I looked back up where Trevor and his friend should have been, but they never returned.
Everyone in the dark looked different and the volunteers that were passing out snack boxes were all standing still as if in position or place.
One in particular kept her eyes up as she muttered something under her breath.
Confused, I looked around for another volunteer dressed in black and they were doing the same.
It wasn’t just them… There was something else going on, something much darker happening.
I looked back at the entrance of our level and saw something like a dark cloak move past the opening before another appeared standing in the middle of the seats like black mist.
Death… Death was surrounding this entire place waiting to collect. It was the same sinking feeling I got when Hillary…
“Shit,” I hissed before anxiously tapping Isis.
Her eyes were glued to the screen when she slowly pointed in complete shock.
I looked at the screens seeing Maggie up against the sand bed.
Other students from the games were entwined by overgrown reefs and greenery pinning them in place like they were gently sleeping.
The balls had fallen to the ground along with the players.
“It’s a total of thirteen players so far that have fallen,” Clementine said sadly as the camera only focused on Maggie Grey. “They are officially out of the game and will be held under a spell until…wait a minute…”
Maggie’s eyes burst open just as the tip of her fingers touched the floor of the lake where there were mounds of sand, greenery and debris.
You could hear the rumbling of the water as Maggie grabbed her throat as blood began to drift from the corners of her eyes.
Her hair began to float around her head, covering most of her face when she reached down to dig her hand in the ground.
You could see her veins thicken in her arm as her clothes floated up with the rush of current beginning to push towards the surface.
Nobody, not even the announcers knew what was going on until she pulled out what looked like a stick with a few leaves sticking out from it.
Bubbles rushed and covered the entire area as another stick stuck out from the ground and reached for her as if wanting to hold her hand.
Maggie fucking Grey was drawing the earth from within the water.
You could see the ground break as more branches began to appear, thickening and stretching towards the surface as Maggie’s body began to propel forward.
The large creature that was swimming in the depths of the lake suddenly came to swim around Maggie, slithering in a circle as it showed its true length and form before opening its mouth as if it were screaming at her.
Just for the creature to suddenly back away at the sheer power she displayed.
“Oh my God,” I heard someone mutter. We watched this woman being pushed up as a massive tree emerged from the center of the lake’s floor only for it to burst through the surface with a splash.
“Family, I have no words to describe what’s happening,” the male voice said in complete awe.
It wasn’t just a single tree where Maggie emerged from the thick branches that now sat on top of the surface that began to calm itself.
The rain still came down, but it wasn’t as hard as before with the waves crashing into one another.
You could hear her coughing while others began to cling to the multiple trees sprouting up.
She was spitting water out and smearing her soaked white hair back from her face as she looked around.
Ayira was the first to scream her name out, thankful.
“MAGGIE!”
The arena went wild at the scene displayed on the screen.
They showed Namir’s face as he continued to watch, emotionless.
The rest of the players made their way to the major tree until more began to surface.
Islands of forests canopies were starting to form above the water as Maggie continued to cough and spit out water.
She looked exasperated as she put her hand out like she was trying to stop whatever it was so she could catch a break.
The waves of the lake were whipping up against her neck as she clung to the branches of the tree to keep afloat.
Ayira was the first to swim to Maggie as the two grabbed one another with a tired laugh.
“Why do you do this to me, Maggie?!” Ayira cried. “Did you hear me screaming for you?!”
Maggie was barely keeping her head afloat when she and Ayira clung to another branch that stuck out. One of the other athletes began shouting out as they panned to show the entire lake was filled with floating canopies of trees.
“We need to swim to find land!” One shouted.
“Land where!? The trees are about as land as it gets!” Another responded.
“I’m going on ahead! Y'all can sit here waiting for something to happen or figure it out for yourselves! There’s something swimming in that water taking us down there with the rest! I’m not waiting to find out what it is!”
“Wait a minute!” Maggie called out. “We can’t keep playing this game! It’s a set up! This whole game is a set up!”
My heart started to pound as nerves swelled in my throat. Did she know? She knew. Maggie knew what was happening.
“This is all a trap!” She yelled out.
“What is she talking about?” Someone said from behind me.
“Family, friends, guests and students,” the announcer went on, “we’re being asked that you–––”